I watched Charlie Brooker's new Black Mirror episode 'White Christmas' recently, and it deals with technology not entirely dissimilar to this. Well worth a watch.
Be My Eyes – Lend your eyes to the blind
41–50 of 165 posts
Re: Be My Eyes – Lend your eyes to the blind
#42My only question is how do you handle trolls, idiots, abuse etc? What happens if for example 4chan decides to 'raid' your app and direct blind people into unfortunate situations. I must admit it's a very low act but that's my only real thought about this. If abuse wasn't a possibility I think the app is 100% amazing.
We do have abuse handling
Not only intentional abuse, but what about lag? Especially when say, crossing the road!
Re: Be My Eyes – Lend your eyes to the blind
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does it work? I think trust is a huge factor with this sort of thing, so you have to be transparent about how you'd prevent, say, random asshats potentially putting people in real danger.
We are indeed very transparent: hub.com/bemyeyes/bemyeyes-server
I think we use http://github.com/bemyeyes/bemyeyes-server :)
Re: Be My Eyes – Lend your eyes to the blind
#44Nice idea, but I think it would be better if it were commercial, with the blind user paying, the sighted helper getting paid, and the app developers getting a cut. The payment could be by the minute. I think the general public will be more inclined to treat blind people as equals if we demolish the notion that blind people require charity. Addendum: Lest anyone think I'm talking out of my ass, here's a blog post from…
My first thought was the point that saalaa is making in a sibling comment, but I'm also thinking there should be a way for users to either go for a volunteer, or have mechanical turk options when you REALLY need to see something and you would pay for it.
Re: Be My Eyes – Lend your eyes to the blind
#45Nice idea, but I think it would be better if it were commercial, with the blind user paying, the sighted helper getting paid, and the app developers getting a cut. The payment could be by the minute. I think the general public will be more inclined to treat blind people as equals if we demolish the notion that blind people require charity. Addendum: Lest anyone think I'm talking out of my ass, here's a blog post from…
I'd feel pretty cheeky helping a blind person if I was doing it just to get paid for it. Similarly, I wouldn't help an old lady cross the street then ask for a pound.
I think at that point you wouldn't be "crowdsourcing" your labor anymore. It'd be like a telecommunications relay service[1], where the operators are properly trained employees.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_relay_servic...
Re: Be My Eyes – Lend your eyes to the blind
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Upvoted, though I don't like that idea. People tend to treat differently things they do for money and things they do for non-monetary rewards. In this particular case, I'm not sure which version would be better for the blind, but I think I'd prefer to help for free. I'm interested in further discussion. Input from actual blind people would be really helpful here.
Well, for what it's worth, I'm legally blind (I have enough sight to read a computer screen up close, but not enough to drive). And I have totally blind friends who like the idea of a paid service like this. (I personally know the guy whose blog post I referenced in the addendum to my first post.)
Thanks for your input. As I wrote, I'm mainly worried about the tendency for pro-bono systems to get corrupted when you introduce money into them.
BTW. How big payments you had in mind?
Re: Be My Eyes – Lend your eyes to the blind
#47Oddly relevant - a This American Life episode recently explored whether cultural expectations of blind individuals' abilities have been detrimental[1]. 1. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/544/b...
That is the first thought I had. The expectation here is that the blind need help, which may not be the case. The interesting thing to me was that the blind can "see" through echo location. Very cool stuff.
Re: Be My Eyes – Lend your eyes to the blind
#48Nice idea, but I think it would be better if it were commercial, with the blind user paying, the sighted helper getting paid, and the app developers getting a cut. The payment could be by the minute. I think the general public will be more inclined to treat blind people as equals if we demolish the notion that blind people require charity. Addendum: Lest anyone think I'm talking out of my ass, here's a blog post from…
Blindness is unfortunately a nearly crushing disability economically. 74% of the blind are unemployed [1] (there is another figure you will occasionally also see of 13% unemployment for the blind, that's a US Government statistic that excludes anyone who is not considered in the list of potentially employed people).
Equally important for HN-type readers to know is that Braille literacy is highly correlated with employment among the blind, and rates of Braille literacy are falling rapidly in the US, from a peak of around 50% in the 1950's to more like 12% today [1].
Smart phone apps are great and important but from what I've read they don't seem to be having the impact on blind employment that Braille has had.
Hopefully someone here will know of a survey reporting measurable economic gains for the new generation of Braille-illiterate technologically assisted blind, thus far what I've heard anecdotally on that front has not been encouraging.
Re: Be My Eyes – Lend your eyes to the blind
#49Nice idea, but I think it would be better if it were commercial, with the blind user paying, the sighted helper getting paid, and the app developers getting a cut. The payment could be by the minute. I think the general public will be more inclined to treat blind people as equals if we demolish the notion that blind people require charity. Addendum: Lest anyone think I'm talking out of my ass, here's a blog post from…
I like the idea of helping people for free (as do many people in the thread). But I wonder quality of assistance would be better if people were getting paid. And I wonder if the app would reach more people if it were for profit.
Re: Be My Eyes – Lend your eyes to the blind
#50Great application of remote crowdsourced guidance.
Of course the end game is to allow remote "workers" to take control of appliances in your home to do certain tasks that aren't easy to automate yet, ie clear the dinner table, wash the dishes, clean up after the dog, etc.
Another lucrative application would be remote operation of heavy machinery. Imagine road work with no "Men at Work" signs.